A stroke of luck and some solid pitching carried the Blue Sox to a 1-0 win over the Lakers Wednesday night at Marcusen Park in an amateur baseball game.

Austin (10-13 overall, 2-1 Southern Minny) scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth when Duell Higbe scored on a grounder by Mark Harber that just went a few feet. Higbe took off on contact and he slid home under a high throw to Faribault catcher Jimmy Roberts.

“I didn’t really think about it,” Higbe said. “I just went and halfway there I said ‘what did I just do?’ I second guessed it half way, but it worked.”

Higbe led off the inning with a single and advanced to second on a groundout by Josh Kunze before moving to third on a passed ball.

Kunze, who is the Blue Sox manager, felt the close score showed how much better Faribault has gotten.

“We struggled to get on base and we didn’t really threaten besides the third inning. A lot of credit goes to those guys,” Kunze said. “I think you’re seeing a closing of the gap between the team that went to state last year and the team that finished last. We probably shouldn’t have won. They played good enough to beat us tonight.”

On the mound, Sean Breslin — who retired the last nine batters he faced — was dominant for the Blue Sox in the last five innings, but he struggled early.

The Lakers loaded the bases with one out in the first before Austin third baseman Jason Denzer made a nice play on a grounder by Ryan Archambault and threw home to get the second out. The third out came on a pop up by Mike Johnson.

“I think I just need to go in the bullpen for about five innings,” Breslin, who finished with a shoutout, said. “Because I was throwing my hardest in the eighth and ninth inning. The defense made the plays when they had to.”

The Lakers had runners on second and third after a one-out double by Roberts in the fourth, but Breslin got Phil Lounsbery to ground into a fielder’s choice and he picked off Lounsbery at first for the third out of the inning.

Breslin said the Blue Sox were fortunate not allow a run on Roberts’ double, that rolled all the way to the left field fence.

“Mark Harber made a nice play on that ball and got it to the cut-off man right way,” he said.

The Blue Sox didn’t have a lot of threats, but they did have runners on first and second with one out in the third after a double by Joe Kroc and a walk to Denzer. But Faribault’s Nate Rost struck out Breslin and Dan Swift to end the frame.

“(Rost) pitched backwards a lot so you never knew what he was throwing and you couldn’t just back on one pitch,” said Higbe, who finished 3-for-4.

Blue Sox 1, Lakers 0

Blue Sox pitching: Sean Breslin (W), 9 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 0 R, 9 K, 1 HBP

Blue Sox hitting: Joe Kroc, 1-for-3, double, BB; Jason Denzer, 0-for-3, BB, SB; Sean Breslin, 0-for-4; Dan Swift, 0-for-3, BB; Pat Wolard, 1-for-4; Duell Higbe, 3-for-4, R; Josh Kunze, 0-for-4; Mark Harber, 1-for-4, RBI; Joe Huffman, 0-for-3

Lakers pitching: Nate Rost, 8 IP, 4 H, 3 BB, 0 R, 7 K; Tom Bendzick, 1/3 IP, 2 H, 1 ER

Lakers hitting: Nate Rost, 0-for-4; Adam Kline, 2-for-4; Nick Rost, 0-for-3, BB; Mike Carpentier, 0-for-3; Ryan Archambault, 0-for-4; Mike Johnson, 1-for-3; Jimmy Roberts, 3-for-4, double; Phil Lounsbery, 0-for-4; Chris Reuvers, 0-for-3, BB